Verfes in which the lines are of different Length.
The passions are a num❜rous crowd,
Imperious, pofitive, and loud.
Curb these licentious fons of strife;
Hence chiefly rife the ftorms of life:
If they grow mutinous, and rave,
They are thy masters, thou their slave.
Truft in Providence recommended.
"Tis Providence alone fecures,
In ev'ry change, both mine and yours.
Safety confifts not in escape
From dangers of a frightful shape:
An earthquake may be bid to fpare
The man that's firangled by a hair.
Fate fteals along with filent tread,
Found oft'neft in what leaft we dread;
Frowns in the ftorm with angry brow,
But in the funfhine ftrikes the blow.
How lov'd, how valu'd once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot:
A heap of duft alone remains of thee;
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.
All fame is foreign, but of true defert ;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One felf-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid ftarers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil❜d feels,
Than Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.
Virtue the guardian of youth.
Down the smooth stream of life the ftripling darts,
Gay as the morn; bright glows the vernal sky,
Hope fwells his fails, and passion fteers his course.
Safe glides his little bark along the shore,
Where Virtue takes her stand: but if too far
He launches forth beyond Difcretion's mark,
Sudden the tempeft fcowls, the furges roar, .
Blot his fair day, and plunge him in the deep.
Sunrife.
But yonder comes the pow'rful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the eaft. The lefs'ning cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach.
Betoken glad. Lo, now, apparent all
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majefty abroad;
And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and tow'rs, and wand'ring ftreams, High gleaming from afar.
May I govern my pafsions with abfolute fway;
grow wifer and better as life wears away.
Shepherd.
On a mountain, ftretch'd beneath a hoary willow,
Lay a fhepherd fwain, and view'd the rolling billow,
Verfes containing Exclamations, Interrogations, and Parentheses.
A COMPETENCE is all we can enjoy :
Oh! be content, where Heav'n can give no more!
Reflection effential to happiness.
Much joy not only speaks small happiness,
But happiness that shortly muft expire.
Can joy, unbottom'd in reflection, ftand?
And, in a tempeft, can reflection live?
Can gold gain friendship? Impudence of hope!
As well mere man an angel might beget.
Love, and love only, is the loan for love.
Lorenzo! pride reprefs; nor hope to find
A friend, but what has found a friend in thee.
All like the purchase; few the price will pay :
And this makes friends fuch miracles below.
Beware of defp'rate steps. The darkest day (Live till to-morrow) will have pass'd away.
Bane of elated life, of affluent ftates,
What dreary change, what ruin is not thine!
How doth thy bowl intoxicate the mind!
To the foft entrance of thy rofy cave,
How doft thou lure the fortunate and great!
Dreadful attraction!
Seize, mortals! feize the tranfient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies:
Life's a fhort fummer-man a flow'r;
He dies-Alas! how foon he dies!
The fources of happiness.
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of fenfe,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence :
But health confifts with temperance alone;
And peace, O Virtue! peace is all thy own.
Who can forbear to fmile with nature? Can
The ftormy passions in the bofom roll,
While ev'ry gale is peace, and ev'ry grove
Is melody?
O facred folitude! divine retreat!
Choice of the prudent! envy of the great!
By thy pure ftream, or in thy waving fhade,
We court fair Wisdom, that celestial maid:
The genuine offspring of her lov'd embrace,
(Strangers on earth,) are Innocence and Peace.
There, from the ways of men laid safe ashore,
We smile to hear the distant tempest roar;
There, blefs'd with health, with bus'nefs unperplex'd,
This life we relish, and enfure the next.
Prefume not on to-morrow.
In human hearts what bolder thought can rise,
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn?
*By folitude here is meant, a temporary feclufion from the world.
Where is to-morrow? In another world.
For numbers this is certain; the reverse
Dum vivimus vivamus.
Whilft we live, let us live.
"Live, while you live," the epicure would say,
"And feize the pleafures of the present day.”
"Live, while you live," the facred preacher cries;
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
Lord! in my views, let both united be;
I live in pleafure, when I live to thee!
Verfes in various forms:
The fecurity of virtue.
Let coward guilt, with pallid fear,.
To fhelt ring caverns fly,
And justly dread the vengeful fate,.
That thunders through the fky.
Protected by that hand, whofe law
The threat'ning storms obey,
Intrepid virtue fmiles fecure,
As in the blaze of day.
And O! by Error's force fubdued,
Since oft my ftubborn will
Prepoft'rous fhuns the latent good,
And grafps the fpecious ill,
Not to my wish, but to my want,
Do thou thy gifts apply;
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